From Pills to Purpose: Unlocking Resiliency, Discovering Joy

welcome fearfully and wonderfully made human to the holistic counselor podcast it's me Diana from through the valley therapy today I am truly excited to introduce a special guest who is not only a fellow member of our Christian mental health professional group but also a pioneering force in the world of Psychiatry Dr Nina Joy Mena is double board certified in general and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and she serves as the chief medical officer at Chris 180 where

she offers Compassionate Care and works TIR tirelessly to break the stigma surrounding mental health in the black community in addition to her clinical work Dr Mena is the founder of enjoy life living in full empowerment LLC and the host of The Journey To Joy live podcast she's also an author with her latest work in joinal nurturing Authentic Living a journal and therapy companion using the Inspire Joy method Making Waves in the mental health field Dr maa's

dedication to promoting resilience wellness and joy is truly inspiring and I'm thrilled to have her here today to share her wisdom with us so without further Ado let's dive into our conversation with Dr Nina Joy Mena welcome thank you great introduction appreciate that all right so let's just start can you just start by sharing your journey oh my goodness into Psychiatry and how you tradition I mean transition to a holistic integrative approach to mental health yes

so when I was young I always wanted to be a baby doctor and I have the story of getting hit by a car at the age of five and really seeing like what do doctors do right I mean I didn't have any broken bones thank god um but it was just like my introduction of O I want to be a doctor and I want to be a baby doctor so when it came time um to going

to college and really thinking about that I got introduced into psychology I think I saw the movie Beautiful Mind I think that was one of the major movies that really got mental health so then I wanted to be a baby doctor a kid doctor and then I'm like what's this whole psychiatrist thing what's a therapist this is really cool so as I was in medical school I learned about the triple board program which you can end

up becoming board certified in Pediatrics adult psychiatry and child psychiatry so I actually did match in that program but I ended up um transitioning into the categorical Psychiatry program because doing all of that was just way too much and I realized that I did do 18 months of pediatric so nice cool I know it but I was like I'm not going to sit for those boards I ended up doing the Psychiatry residency and then coming down

to Emory for the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship program and once I graduated that I uh worked for morous school of medicine and was associate assistant professor there as well as the associate program director for their fellowship program and then ended up leaving last year and that's when I felt like I broke free I loved morous morehous is great I'm still an ad junk faculty member there but people would talk about well what's your brand do

you have a website I'm like what do you mean what's my brand do I have a website I work for Morehouse go to morouse website you'll see my picture there but when I when I left them and I became a chief medical officer at Chris 180 I felt more free and I say let me create my own business my name is enjoy so then I you know enjoy life life stands for living in full and and

I'm like this is mine this is my baby I can do what I want and you know as you as me when did I become more holistic as a psychiatrist I I feel like I've always looked at the person as their whole body as their whole person as a mental health professional you can't help but do that because there's so much more to that yeah well girl come on there's probably more to that I mean I

feel like there's so much more to a person than just like you walk into my office and let me throw a medication to you you and I'm just I'm just not a Pill Popper and I tell my patients all the time just because you see me doesn't mean you're going to get a medication or that you have to a medication this is a firm believer yeah I'm a firm believer in therapy therapy therapy and I feel

like you know research even says that if you're in on a medication and you do therapy it's that synergistic uh relief and Improvement right so yeah you know just doing my own business and starting my own practice I felt like you know let me create the inspired Joy create the en joinal and create something that my uh my community not even just my patients could use so that they're looking at all aspects of their life not

just mental health but their physical health mental health um Financial Health spiritual health all those social health wow oh my good okay so this is so refreshing you guys because some of you if you've listened to my past podcast just my experience though in brow County basically that's all I've had is this experience in in South Florida but I think working with teenagers what I saw in Psychiatry really gave me a bad taste and to hear

you speak that you actually do therapy and you're not a pill Pusher and that you actually understand that the human being is a holistic you know nutrition everything everything that is like you I I think you should be training other psychiatrists yeah hey that's the goal so anyway but what's Chris 180 oh yeah Chris 180 is a community mental Health Center so it's a huge organization in Atlanta trauma informed organization we have psychiatrists psychiatric nurse practitioners

therapist there's 45 different programs adoptions foster care violence prevention lgbtq plus all kinds of programs even some residential so I work there and I've actually always been a psychiatrist for them ever since I was a fellow I did a rotation there and so like I said just became a leader last year but I love them they're my baby I love that all right so let's just talk about h Psychiatry a little bit more can you share

a success story where a holistic method significantly impacted a patient's mental health I yes you know they my patients seem to light up when I start talking about other things um because you know they come in and normally the focus is on what made you feel down what were you depressed why were you anxious and you know I focus on resilience I says well what when when did you last Feel resilient or when did you um

use your uh positive coping skills or your positive affirmations is what I mean you know making sure they're using all those things and you know I asked them questions about running and and exercise and eating well I feel like we have to be that investigator as a psychiatrist because it's not just about the depression how you feeling did the peill make you feel better and okay bye because our circumstances everything that we're in the way we

think the way we behave can change that I know you're asking for a specific success story I can't think of a specific success story right now yeah but it tends to be more successful and they seem to have a better outcome when we do talk about those things how do you have enough time because I think that was one thing I saw oh my goodness um within the psychiat you know when when you have to take

insurance and you're push you know oh you have to see a hundred patients in a day and here's your 10 minutes or or some crazy stuff I'm telling you right now like maybe it's the difference between Florida and Georgia I don't know but do you see where I'm getting at it's like how do you take that step back um now you're in private practice so you have a little more so do I like I have a

little more freedom because I'm in private practice but I also want to help my community my bpack community here locally right because some of them in that Community Mental Health where I started that's where I saw like right what's going on here like this is not healthy we're not asking questions we're not investigating we're not saying what's your a score your adverse childhood experience we're not understanding the cultural background that your culture is very different than

the norm that you've been studying what do you say about that you're right you know professionals and providers we don't have enough time and so that's a problem but I made sure that my providers have the time at Chris 180 uh they get 30 minutes for followup you might say well how time but 30 minutes for followup 60 minutes for a new patient and they have the opportunity to make a 60-minute follow-up they they make their

follow-up appointments when they see the patient they do their follow-up and I tell them hey if you you need a 60-minute followup do that if you want to incorporate some therapy do that and I coach them on that because obviously there's different therapy add-on codes that we can use when we're doing the therapy we should be getting creative we're going to do the therapy if you don't have the time to do it that's fine um but

the reason why I say 30 minutes is a lot because you we have five Chris counseling centers and when I became chief medical officer one of the centers uh was doing 20 minute follow-ups and 40 minute new patient so I said what no we need some consistency they were feeling like they didn't have enough time and even if there's just a few questions that you asked to add in some of that brief supportive therapy you're still

getting it in when you're saying okay well what strategies are you using for your depression what does make you happy and I always ask how is therapy going because all of the patients that we see also have a therapist at Chris 180 and so a lot of them saying Oh I just talk to them you know I'm not really learning anything and so I kind of coached them on well you got to go with a goal

here's your goal you got to make sure you have homework because we have to make therapy work for us like you said in a private practice I have all of the control so I love that yeah I mean it's accountability for the client you know the patient the client whatever you want to call them they come in you're you're giving them a service they're paying you for a service or their insurance companies paying you for a

service and you know it's it's they come in and it depends where they're at because I'm sure like you being um a psychiatrist you see you have to see the hardcore issues of like that come in that are super depressed yes psychosis schizophrenia did just all these and so I'm sure the first is like all stabilization yeah stabilizing and then trying to figure out what works or not because that's another thing that I know is that

a lot of these medications that you have studied or I have studied they're tested on what they're not tested on the cultural of females or children they're testing on and so you have to figure all that out and then once you get them stabilized you have them with the therapist as well is what I'm heing right exactly but with accountability and encouragement and you're just not a number or just this other you know here's the check

you know let's check off yeah just checking them off like this is some saw okay I'm done because I felt that I have the ADHD and I've probably had it throughout my childhood but it wasn't an issue but residency brought it out so I went to see a psychiatrist and I could tell I was just a checkbox he had his laptop in his hand and he was just checking things off barely looked at me and he

knew I was a psychiatric resident and was still I experienced that and he didn't really get to the core he just took it as like okay yeah you have your ADHD here's your prescription I don't take a prescription anymore but it was nice for me to experience that too because it's like that's that's how it is a check we're a checkbox sometimes but I I had a right so you teach your patients to be an advocate

for themselves then that's what I'm hearing instead of staying in the system do you um because you do medication management as well yes do you help those that maybe have been in the system for a while and then they want to get off meds oh yeah I love deprescribing my favorite patient is when they come to me and they have six medications and I'm just like oh my God why are you on this let me get

you off cuz some of the time they're they've started the meds maybe 10 20 years ago and didn't see anyone or the psychiatrist just kind of takes it for what it is and like okay that's what you need that's what you need but when I get them I'm like well do you actually really need them especially if they're on two n Psych I coach them on what that medication is doing to their body an psychotics increase

the risk of high blood pressure high cholesterol High diabetes they don't real they didn't realize that and you know let's try to get you off let's get the labs let's trial you off for maybe a week let's let's you know uh inch you down just a little bit whatever you know the case may be for that particular patient and sees what what works because a lot of times they don't even need it anymore there are patients

that do require a certain uh cocktail of medications and I still try to get them off but yeah I I definitely try to do that and with diagnosis too some people have schizophrenia and bipolar I'm like okay I I I won't lock that in until I you know really get to know you and understand that for you and a lot of the times when they come to me for a bipolar diagnosis they actually don't have bipolar

yeah I've I've noticed that too a borderline or you know like when we go deep diving with cptsd which is not in the DSM you know because you can't code for that yeah but you have to think about like oh this is where we have to to figure out what's going to work um and what's not I'm glad to hear that so are you able to um are you in Florida too like if I had patients

that I can send them to I have a yes I have a Florida license yes I do which is why I'm on that group that you met me on yeah I know but I think they were branching out because it's all started in Broward that group started and I'm talking about the Christian mental health professionals it started as Christian mental health professionals of Broward Kayla and Anna started it then it grew and now it's Florida now

it's out I mean it's just getting bigger and bigger okay yes I do have a license so I I take Etna in Georgia but as you may know it's only state by state so I don't have Etna in Florida yet okay but I may look and see how that's gonna go but being by myself I want to try one insurance at a time yeah no and I understand that so say somebody does want to see you

like here in Florida they just you know place a zoom call and they it's out of pocket taking it correct so unfortunately since it's not medic uh on the insurance it would be out of pocket but they just go to my website Dr enjoy life.com and request a consultation okay I love that all right so let's talk about cultural competence and empowerment that's because uh in October they have me speaking at and I'm telling you I'm

not a speaker so I'm like Lord what are you doing like oh you're so good at it it's my first uh going to be speaking at a like a summit for faith-based practice ractice owners and I'm I'm my what I'm teaching is on cultural competency oh look at you in private practice yeah and so because a lot of people don't really get that I mean they're starting to and understanding it but I also see you know

like this is people from all over the country that own a faith-based private practice and I want to challenge their thinking because for example you know I had clients that come from the Haitian pop population right very spiritual if they were raised in Voodoo right they come in and they talk to someone say a psychiatrist or a therapist that has no cultural competency and they automatically say that guy's schizophrenic because he's talking about spirits and it's

like and then boom and then you're like a teenager and you don't know and the parents are not from this country they're trusting the system and then all of a sudden here we're on a dark Road right you see what I'm getting at so that's just one example that I will be utilizing for you know to make people think because you know case study After Case Study so how do you incorporate or how important is that

for you like can you can you talk about that a little you know real quick because you made me think of this by giving that example so I also do trainings uh to therapists teaching them how to diagnose uh mental illness in adults and children and one of the books I use or the book I use is the DSM differential diagnosis book and they have differential diagnosis trees or decision trees for each typee of symptom right

so the decision tree for hallucinations you go down like um you know different routes right it's a decision tree like almost like an algorithm there's a certain point where it asks are the hallucinations based in culture and if the answer is yes it says no diagnosis what how do I not know that exactly is that new well okay this is another thing I'm gonna talk to you about because I think I think I could be real

with you right the DSM because I remember how angry I would get at that book when I first started back in early 2000 because I'm looking and I'm because I'm very inquisitive that and I'm like okay who are these people that are writing this book and I'm looking and I'm like who are they who are they who are they it sounds like they're a bunch of white men no offense white man but but you see where

I'm getting at incompetent sometimes yeah well and then all of a sudden I'm just sitting there like yeah well you're not speaking to my culture or my people or my community or whatever like and so here we are now dsm5 are we on TR yet I can't even I don't even know because it just keeps shifting and changing and I get it where things are new but then at the same time I'm a little bit of

a questioning like is this book being created for why like why are these cultur informed yes so what do you think about that yeah so I I thought it was cool that it was in there because I'm like well maybe it's culturally informed because we we need to pay attention to that and even when it comes to so we talked we uded to trauma earlier right as far as like psychosis and bipolar there's probably some type

of trauma going on you mentioned PTSD and really the DSM needs to include severe PTSD including like hallucinations of like the person who battered them we do talk about the flashbacks or reliving the experience but there is a part of our trauma that might lead us to some type of psychosis or anxious paranoia and it's legit like you're hearing shotguns yes I mean that's that's a part of your PTSD right so a lot to that there's

the trauma there's culture spirituality there's there's a lot to that so we need to inform ourselves and think about that um and then just in thinking about what our patient might experience I'm thinking about a patient who um is a non-documented immigrant and thinking about you know their fears of getting hospitalized because they don't have any insurance or their fears of you know what might happen if they can't get their resident card and you know being

able to relate to them and understand that CU these are circumstances that affect their care and and their treatment yeah yeah I mean that makes a lot of sense and talking about that then they become a little paranoid think about that rightfully so right and but if you're see going to a community mental health and I don't want to put Community because they they're trying to do their best with what they can and the resources they

have but it at the same time if there's like say an intern or a newbie or someone that isn't has not experienced different cultures okay like that to me is what's important is having them understand like you know we we look at the world the way we are yes right and not how it really is and so for you I mean you said you're you teach this and the DSM has that right is there any is

there any like resources or anything like that that you know of that can help say an intern that's listening to uh this right now not any specific resources but it's a matter of like even like your travels you know traveling the world when I was in medical school I was able to do a lot of different International rotations so if you're still a resident or you're still a student there's lots of different opportunities to do rotations

out of the country I was able to do a four-month rotation in Rwanda four months in Bolivia New Zealand I did a week in Costa Rica I was doing all of them because I love to travel so I would say travel get out there and see because honestly you can read all you want but it's really the the getting in there and immersing yourself talking to those people seeing Africa and realizing Africa isn't just dirt roads

and and and giraffes and and elephants walking around they have roads and cars and tall buildings and things like that because a lot of us we grow up ignorant because that's all we know and speaking of that ignorance I grew up the opposite right I'm from Detroit it was all black people and this might sound funny but I legit thought that all white people were mentally because the only white people in my school were in special

education oh wow wow this is such a great different Insight see I I had I I I literally grew up with immigrants all around me in New York and queens right from all cultures I'm saying Russia Jamaica China and then my mom she was a single immigrant mom so I I didn't have and then I moved to to Florida and that's the first time I really experienced hardcore racism and I was like what the freak is

this yeah because I'm ethnically ambiguous uh people did not know how to take me in any way and they're they most people thought I was from India like from the Middle East y I could see whatever but then you know and then when I start learning I'm like wait a minute what's going on here I'm not used to but we were still Multicultural but separate the South that South mentality but you're so right on like I

have seen that I have seen where people are immersed in their one cult say like my husband is from North Carolina so we're totally opposite he's a southern white boy from North Carolina and I go visit sometimes and it's it's a weird they look at me weird and I'm just like okay but it's I'm like it's it's education right right we got to get out of our bubble there's some people that don't leave their city so

so my answer to your question is travel get a plane ticket get a plane ticket or a bus fair if they can't afford the plane you know and also people say all the time Global health is where you are so also maybe especially in Atlanta maybe get out of Buckhead and go down to East Point or college you know or go into the depths of Miami so there are places you can go locally to really to

learn different cultures too right there's no right there's no excuse it's it's really wanting to learn and and overcome the fear because that's one thing I've saw in all in many different cultures I don't care where you come from because I've experienced and have helped many families from different cultures and it is fear because you know like I could say that there's quite a few that are like oh we fear the white man or we fear

this or we fear the gang member or we fear yeah okay you see where I'm getting at and so or the lgbtq like or stuff like that and I'm just going okay you have to understand they're human beings with a soul that's how I see them and why not ask the questions because usually that fear is what makes you like ah you realize you're biased right you become biased all right so let's talk about your living

in full empowerment enjoy life what inspired that my name who I am you know so my daddy passed away about three years ago and he always says well you're my joy you're my joy you know I'm the reason your name is Joy I'm the reason so I'm just like you know what I got to do something that spreads the joy and shows everyone and I would always you know write injy on on things and I even

anytime I would take notes in my um phone for my own journal I would call it an enjo and so I was just like I got to get my brand out there to be seen and you know enjoy life I said well that's has to stand for something and just living in full empowerment just being able to make your own decisions based on what your needs are your values I just felt like that just speaks to

the joy that we all want to feel I love that okay so tell me more though about the enjoy nurturing Authentic Living that journal and therapy compar because to me this is like I can't I'm like I'm talking to a psychiatrist who understands holistic it's like coaching which we're not allowed to say coaching but we do because honestly if you think about it your your education and my education we could be coaches come on oh yeah

we could be life coaches yeah totally but then the well I'm not even going to go with the licensing and and how yes it gets very blurry so I just like calling myself a psychoeducational trainer but but for you you're you know how do you Empower your patients and and what do you do what do you use is there are there ways that you've learned I mean is this you know cognitive behavioral DBT or is this

something that you took eclectically and picked up different things that worked for you I don't know if I think yeah definitely what works for me as a person and then also what I've seen work and what I know as far as evidence so the collectic nature of all the strategies that are in this book yes I did do but it did start with me because I you know my the the five crucial areas of Health in

here like I said before it's the mental health physical health Financial health aspirational health that's your purpose and then social health so to me I feel like my mental you know I can get anxiety of course but you know in general I feel like my mental health can be pretty good on a day-to-day basis my physical health is pretty good on day to BAS aspirational I feel like I'm living my purpose living my dream so those

three are pretty good right but then there's days where the Financial Health is just kind of poor or maybe that's doing fine but then I get in a fight with my husband and then the social health isn't doing well and it just tears up my whole day and I'm just like huh life is more than just talking about my mental health it's also the social health the Financial Health and all those other things so you know

we we talk about this holistic thing a lot but I says well I would like to create a journal that has all this here that has a that you can use to get through each of these so I pull from cognitive behavioral health I pull from dialectical Behavioral Health positive psychology mindfulness based stress reduction smart methods the the the smart goals yeah smart goals right yeah specific measurable attainable um relevant and timely so I pull from

all those strategies put them in all in one book obviously paying the respects for the people who created them and so that you can know you know what do I do when I get in this situation but all it's all about the posit ity and our our thought life and helps you know that you can do it if you only change your thoughts and your behaviors how do you do that gently because there's some people that

come in you know that right and I know that because if we're if we're that personality or those uh therapists or practitioners that have that like Hey we're coach you know like encouragement and everything and it's cat I could tell like I think you and I have that same like yeah come on like but there's people that come in and they are not ready for that at all and then they might feel a little I hate

to say judged or shamed or guilty that they can't live up to the the energy that's in the office how would you approach that or what do you do like what's your like what's the method with with it you know like what would you do in that situation well it is Case by case I do have a few in my head that I think about because I do love seeing the black woman with a severe depression

and and they just haven't been able to be treated I that I enjoy that you come to me if that's what you have that's what I enjoy working with um but it does take some motivational interviewing to get them to understand that thinking more positively can be helpful and you know these are women who they've tried they've tried and tried all these pop and skills it just does not work how dare you tell me to think

positively how D you tell me you don't know my life you don't know me and look at this thing that I'm experiencing this terminal thing or this this really hard thing why how dare you tell me that so it's a matter of getting onto their level it's that motivational interviewing you know what do you want in your life and and and let's try it because it doesn't hurt and my number one thing I like to say

is negative thoughts work they will make you feel bad but positive thoughts work too and you've given all your life to negative thoughts now it's time to switch that and give your life to positive thoughts and try it it's going to take time it's almost like you got to convert them the same way you would turnning someone to be a Christian yeah it will because it's uncomfortable and people don't want especially nowadays it's like everyone's rushing

to try to be so happy and comfortable and now look where we're at I I think that's one of the main reasons the young people because I I treat a lot of 25 I would say to 35 year olds now that's what's been coming to me right and 25 to 35 year old women and men and um and they're and but they're also the first generation think about this with social media being raised in social media

comparison and and like everything looks that's almost like gen Z or maybe they're still Millennials they're Millennials yeah yeah zillennials uh oh you have the zillennials and the genz and the Gen Alpha coming up and so I well I think I mean that's what I heard what the other one was yeah but but you see with I I love that you spend that time you challenge them you you you're trying to build resiliency because that's what

works especially in our population because guess what they can't afford all the other things I had to come up at working in alternative schools ways to empower them even if their whole world's going chaotic around them because what am I going to do bakeer act every single person or take them to DCF or Department children families to come or Child Protective Services I do do that when it's emergency but some of the practitioners they are so

new and they're so scared and they're so rigid that they don't go with their instincts do you see where I'm getting at and so now they're causing more trauma to the adolescence than actually sitting and trying to figure because it is it's like the law and the rule and I get it we have to respect that to save lives yeah but what do you think about that like how do you go into your instinct and you

know with your approaches yeah yeah so what I wanted to mention because I think this answers that same question everybody needs to read the book The how of happiness Sarah lonsky if I'm saying the word right actually I pulled it up real quick uh Leah bomi son Sonia s o nja a anyway the how of Happiness the scientific approach to getting the life you want so what she says in her book is that we actually have

control over 40% of our happiness wow apparently 50% of our happiness has to do with this genetic set point we all kind of go back to this certain set point that makes us happy you know automatically right and then there's 10% of Life circumstances that makes us happy happy so apparently you got that 50% of the genetic set point 10% of the happiness is from Life circumstances and the 40% actually has to do with how we

behave and how we think wow so that tells me right there this is how we can convince our our clients and loved ones and whoever you got 40% to work on and and it's a matter of changing the way you think and what you do and the fact that we sometimes try to focus on our circumstances but I need to be married I need to be single I need to be this my I need more money

that's just 10% of your happiness wow I love that I will put that in the show notes including Dr Mena's book as well on the show notes as well so um well i' love that I do I really right well and it's the science is coming in with that the biology of belief I don't know if you know Dr Bruce Lipton and he studied uh the biology of belief like in cells in actually yeah and so

and understanding that genes genes are the bullets the environments the trigger we have we have genes right we you have gen I know I have genes I know I have trauma genes running through my veins from whatever happened to my mom and dad and all that stuff and it is it's the rewiring of the brain it's like rewiring these parts and that's what you're doing with your en joinal Jour nut you know that that's what it

sounds like so tell me you have the book in front front of you I okay so tell me when you open the book there must be a place or space or page because it is your book I love that can you share one thing or two things from that book yes it's interesting because last week my H podcast episode was all about what's inside the enjoo so yeah there's it's separated by basically seven books because you

mentioned the inspired Joy method because at the it says I'm using the Inspire Joy method so what is that no it because I created it yeah I love that Inspire actually stands for integrity nurture stability purpose intimacy resilience and empowerment so those are seven things Inspire seven letters the Integrity part of inspire is when you think about that's who we are are right our authenticity our mental health our thought Health our our emotional health our ability

to have the Gratitude our tra our past traumas whether we get through that so then that first chapter is the Integrity so there's um I call it thought shift us our ability to change our thoughts from negative to positive and this really is what brings in the um cognitive behavioral strategies and the next one would be our emotion Shi so getting into our emotional health all of this is under their integrity and then getting into our

uh gratitude shifts getting into you know our spiritual heal so and there's at the beginning of each section there's about a page or two that talks about it like well what is gratitude what are our thoughts what is CBT what our thought traps what is DBT and then there's um mindfulness moments in each beginning of each section too because you might say like oh you need to do these things but how so I have different mindfulness

moments here that tell someone how to do them there's actually a whole glossery at the end that talks about these new words as well as uh 18 coping skills and strategies so then get into that next chapter nurture that's your physical health so nurture is your physical health then the other s stability is your financial health and then the next one after that is uh the purpose that's your aspirational health so living your dreams and purposes

and that's when I get into the smart goals with the Financial Health and the the aspirational wow and then lastly when I'm finishing up those five um Health areas you get into the core foundations of resilience and empowerment because in each of those you need resilience you need empowerment so all those things are fundamental and then at the very end are the Inspire Joy daily logs because at the end of actually getting through these chapters well

hey let's put it to work each day let's talk about what we have done for to practice gratitude or to for our physical health or to our financial health so it's really a practical way to get into those five crucial areas of your life to elevate your joy I love that I mean and especially because you bring in so many different resources for the person the reader do you do book clubs with this about to I'm

about to because I mean you know if you write a book you can take it and do more than just be an author you know book clubs I like to train therapists in this method I love to train people who are reading it and wanting to change their uh into Joy yes that is the goal like create a certification like I am certified in the enjoy all nurt or or enjoy life living yeah Inspire exactly I

love that that is wonderful all right so as we start winding down the episode I just want to know do you have any um for you know for listeners who are new to holistic mental health because it is it's sort of new because I you know like there's nutritional Psychiatry that now is all planning on nutrition cool I just heard those words yeah and the gut you know the gut microbiome and just different things like that

and then you have others that are like non-pathological at all like they're just straight up and I'm like okay I mean there's different people growing in understanding that there's just more to diagnosis and medication right I mean it has its place you know the diagnosing has its place to help us to help right but it's like now we're shifting to making people stuck in it for so long and understanding that you're more than just your diagnosis

and you're just more than taking Med there's other ways right so what advice would you offer a beginner on their Journey well everything that we're talking about is a choice you know Joy doesn't just fall on you you're not going to just go search for it and like all of a sudden it's there it's a choice to choose to be joyful and I or choose Joy I don't say choose to be joyful and I talk about

that a lot on my podcast Journey To Joy live that you can enter you can choose choose to enter your journey to Joy and once you choose it doesn't mean you're automatically happy you're automatically joyful it's that you're choosing to go seek a a health provider or support or expert or choosing to exercise choosing healthy food choosing to budget your money and make sure you know you're financially secure so that's what I believe BEC and then

once you realize that you're empowered and that you can make the decision to do that you can make the decision to forgive and not you know hold grudges you can make the decision to start your healing Journey from your traumas that makes you feel better because when you externalize it and say well that person needs to say sorry because of what they did well person I I'm always um getting into you know these things and it's

not victim blaming that is not what we're talking about here it's empowerment and it's resilience you can't have resilience without failure so you're gonna fail you're gonna have the trauma just get back up and choose to enter that Journey To Joy wow I love that so any final words or call to action hey just that right feels to enter the Journey of Joy because it it feels better than feeling depressed and you know there's are there

are a lot of people who they're they've been depressed for so long and that's what they're used to it's they comfortable they're just like I don't even know if I want to be happy but try it out and if you can't figure it out by yourself that's what we're here for seek a professional yes seek a professional I will put her information because she's able to see you in Florida name all the states you're allowed to

see people oh right well I I'm I'm in 11 states so okay I Can Only Name a few no no no if you're in 11 states I will put that all the I was GNA say I might miss some but but definitely Alabama Florida Tennessee and Georgia so okay wonderful yeah and Michigan no that's great um is do you have a favorite Bible verse or anything that inspires you for my my audience that Lov the Lord

oh wow oh gosh I have quite a few but the first one that comes to mind because that's the one I have spoken to with a few patients do not be anxious so that's Philippians 4 and8 I believe I'm getting it right you not be anxious for anything and some people might get offended by well how you going to tell me not to be anxious but that just says in and of itself you have a choice

yes fre will yeah yeah we all have free will even though sometimes we are in trapped thinking we don't and so it is about you know it's that man search for meaning that Victor Frankle was talking about when he was in um the Holocaust you know I mean if you read that book that's that's amazing book but it's just understanding that we do have choices we do have free will and it's it's and we have the

ability to shift just one one step at a time like that's the thing is right isn't that what you do with your patients it's like here here's what I can provide for you but it's your choice to pick it up and do something with it help us help you helplessness yeah yes yeah so anyway I really I could talk to you probably forever but I know I clients this afternoon and you probably yeah exactly like we

both have but I just wanted to get you up on here so people know like there are psychiatrists because some people are very like um against it I'm telling you right now no seriously it is and I understand it because I have an anger towards it as well because of what I've seen in the past but I have to shift my perspective and understand not to pigeon hole stereotype people or their positions right because we stereotype

police officers we've seen that happen you could stereotype a lot of different people just because of our own pain or hurt or what we se but we have to understand we have a bigger world out there and we need to go look at the world and understand that we have choices especially here in this country because exactly okay and that and and we hope I I I I don't want to speak for you for Dr minute

but I think it's like choose Joy yeah there's a way to choose Joy we can help you choose joy little by little it's not we're going to shame you know and say like you need to do this it's more of like where are you at this moment and what are you willing you know what energy do you have to choose it now how can I help you yeah right exactly really good all right Dr Min well

if you're ever in South Florida let us know let us know we'll all group up together all of us down here in South Florida and meet up together or man I'll I'll create an event for you down here somewh I'll do yeah or something like you know we'll see I'm there I'm hold you to it I love that I love that all right Dr M thank you so much and listeners remember to trust in the Lord

guard your heart and renew your mind bye by and now for the disclaimer to make sure you understand that you are responsible for you the content provid Ed on the holistic counselor podcast is for entertainment and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice diagnosis or treatment always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified mental health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical or mental condition

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